My 2¢ Worth

 saw a group of cyclists go by today. They were all wearing helmets and that got me to thinking. Isn't it a wonder I'm alive today?

f you are of my generation or older, you know what I'm talking about. Back when we were growing up, they didn't even have bicycle helmets!

 grew up in the country and my buddies and I used to ride our bikes for miles nearly every day. Our parents were never concerned about head protection.

hen the family went somewhere in the car, nobody buckled up. Heck, most autos weren't even equipped with seat belts when I was a boy! I sometimes joke about chiseling out my homework on stone tablets, but the seat belt thing is true.

t seems to me that our society is much too safety conscious today. I'm all for safety, but don't you think we've carried this safety business a little too far?

rash helmets for bicycles?!

Feature Article

Internet Marketing for People Who Hate to Write

by: Jinger Jarrett Internet Marketing for Free

Writing for your business is unavoidable. Unless you have a staff to do it for you, you'll have to answer customer email, and write sales letters, as well as promotional materials.

If you sell affiliate programs, you can avoid a lot of the customer service tasks involved, but in order to be successful with affiliate programs, you need to differentiate yourself from the other affiliates in a program. This means writing articles, product reviews, press releases, and other forms of communication that provide value to your potential customers.

There are ways to market though, and they're all free, that can cut the amount of writing that you do, build your credibility, help you find ideas for products, and help your potential customers find what they're looking for.

Below are four:

1. Networking

Networking is a way to connect with business associates, and sometimes, your potential customers. This is normally done through sites that allow you to do searches for those you want to meet.

Normally networking sites allow you to exchange messages, blog, exchange messages on forums or groups, and start conversations with others who are interested in your area of expertise.

This is the easiest way for you to find joint venture partners that can help you sell your products and services.

Examples of networks are:

http://www.myspace.com
        http://www.ecademy.com
        http://www.ryze.com

2. Forums

Forums are very similar to network sites. However, unlike networking sites, where you're looking for business partners, or to sell business to business, with forums, you're looking directly for your market. You can find out what others are shopping for by reading about what they're actually talking about.

Studying the forums is what finally made me decide to create a blog on how to market on the internet for free. I kept seeing the same question over and over: "I've just built a website, but I don't have any money. How do I market it?"

Forums will allow you to answer the questions of others and build your credibility in your aread of expertise. You can also find product ideas from what others are discussing.

To promote yourself, you can answer questions. If you're passionate about your topic, and you consider yourself an expert, you should be able to easily answer questions. Give the potential customer enough information to be helpful, but give him/her a reason to visit your site.

If you don't know what to say, ask questions. This will allow you to build links and learn your area of expertise better. It will also help you build relationships.

To find forums on your topic, do a search in a search engine and combine your topic with the word forums.

3. Free Classifieds

Although classified advertising isn't as popular as it used to be, and most don't use these sites, classified advertising can still be effective.

What you want to look for in free classified advertising are sites that rank high and get a lot of traffic.

Sites like Yahoo, MSN, and Google have groups where you can exchange messages and promote your products and services.

Unlike a lot of free classified ad sites, the messages on these groups do get read.

If you want to easily learn how to write good classifieds, study the small ads in magazines and newspapers. The ads you see repeated are making money. If they weren't, the ad writer wouldn't continue to run the same ads over and over.

4. Search Engine Optimization

If you market online, search engine optimization is a task you can't afford to ignore. It's amazing the number of sites on the internet that aren't even in the search engines.

You'll have a tough time being found online if you don't optimize and then submit your site.

The easiest way to do this is to get a tool that will tell you how to optimize your site. Software like Web CEO, http://www.webceo.com, will help take you through the process of optimizing your site by helping you find keywords, as well as analyze your site to tell you how you can improve your search engine optimization to raise your rankings.

With search engine optimization, you optimize each page for a specific set of keywords. What's important here is to know what keywords you want to be found for, who your competition is, as well as how much competition you have. Optimize your site and then make sure that you submit it to the search engines.

Although you may not like to write, and most people don't, you can cut your writing tasks down by choosing marketing methods that don't require you to do a lot of writing. Write in a conversational tone and help your site visitors and potential customers find the solutions to their problems. This will increase your sales and website conversions.

**************

Jinger Jarrett is the author of "1001 High Traffic Sites to Market Your Business for Free". She will show you where to market your business to get the most sales. Get your copy now before it's gone.
Internet Marketing for Free

Kill JavaScript Errors

Have you ever put some JavaScript on your web page just to have an error message displayed in your browser's status bar, even though the JavaScript works? This happens occasionally and nobody knows why. Well, I'm going to show you how to keep your JavaScript and get rid of the error message so your visitors won't think you're a dork.

Simply paste the following code into the <head> of your document.

<script language="JavaScript"> <!-- Hide me from lame browsers //create a function that will return true function killErrors() { return true; } //use the onError event handler as a property and //make it equal to the KillErrors function which returns true window.onerror = killErrors; // --> </script>

* Get these syndicated tip feeds for your web site, free. *

Second Article

Left-Handed Keyboards and Other Computer Accessories

by: Brenda Wright Keyboard Pals

I am left-handed and this used to be a huge problem when I was looking for various products, including computer keyboards, as everything seemed to be designed exclusively for right-handed people. There simply weren't enough manufacturers who took the needs of left-handers seriously.

It is often difficult for a right-handed person to appreciate the difficulties that keyboards designed with a bias towards them can pose to left-handers. The keys are positioned awkwardly because the numeric keypad and directional arrows are situated on the right. There are now more keyboards designed with these placed on the left which is far more comfortable for left-handers to use. This may seem an apparently simple matter but the redistribution of the keys makes a huge difference and improves the usability of the keyboard.

Computer mice are another bugbear of mine and probably every other left-hander too. I know that the ones with tracker balls are able to be used with either hand as the buttons can be configured accordingly by a simple software program. The real problem with mice is when they are an integral part of the keyboard and are, frustratingly, positioned on the right hand side making them all but useless for lefthanders.

Ergonomic mice and keyboards are the most exasperating inventions ever for a left-hander. The shape of these is designed to be comfortable for a right-hander and is therefore totally impractical for a left-hander like me to use. Fortunately, there are a select few manufacturers who are sympathetic to the needs of left-handers and do produce keyboards and mice that fit left-handers comfortably. I just wish there were more of them so we wouldn't have to make do with the most basic keyboards and mice, especially when using equipment at public libraries and the like.

One of the biggest issues for anyone wanting to buy left-handed keyboards and accessories is, if they are able to find them in the first place of course, cost. Because right-handed equipment is mass produced it is obviously cheaper to manufacture and the cost to the consumer, the right-handed consumer that is, is lower. To produce left-handed keyboards usually involves much lower quantities and the price is higher to account for this. What most left-handers don't know, at least I didn't until fairly recently, is that a company is legally bound to provide its employees with suitable equipment to enable them to perform their job to the best of their ability. This includes any keyboards or other equipment if your position involves using a computer. So it is totally reasonable to request this when you are hired.

Obviously, if you are left-handed and work for a company then you are going to be looked after by them and you won't have to fork out for left-handed keyboards and mice yourself. Unfortunately, I am self-employed now, which I wouldn't change for the world but I still long for the day when left-handed ergonomic keyboards and mice are as widely available as right-handed ones and cost the same!

**************

Brenda Wright is the webmaster of Keyboard Pals which is a premier resource for keyboard information. For questions or comments about this article, please visit: www.keyboardpals.com

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